


Second Place Blues

by TheSecondBatgirl



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:26:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22255636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecondBatgirl/pseuds/TheSecondBatgirl
Summary: Considering that there had only been one Red Ranger and one Blue Ranger before him, it sometimes drove Rocky crazy that people didn’t think he was a good example of either color.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17
Collections: Alpha's Magical Fic Exchange 2019





	Second Place Blues

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fangirlshrewt97](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlshrewt97/gifts).



Considering that there had only been one Red Ranger and one Blue Ranger before him, it sometimes drove Rocky crazy that people didn’t think he was a good example of either color.

Okay, yes, considering most of the Rangers who had come after him, it was usually that Red Rangers were the leader and Blue Rangers were the smart one.

So maybe they had a point on the first one. Nearly every other Red Ranger had been the leader of their team, even if they were brand new to the team and others had far more experience. (Taylor, when he had met her, had a lot to say about that, even if Cole had worked out in the end.) And technically Jen was the leader of Time Force, and Delphine was the leader of the Alien Rangers, but it still felt like more people followed their Red Rangers on the battlefield.

It made Rocky feel like nothing he had done as a Ranger had made any impact. That neither of his colors had anything to do with him; he was just a poor replacement for Jason, and an even poorer one for Billy. (Sometimes he thought that maybe Adam should have been blue and he should have been green, but there was even more baggage attached to the color green then there was red or blue, and he knew that was why Adam had always felt more comfortable as the Black Ranger than as Zeo or Turbo Green.)

And maybe he didn’t really feel like he was a leader, but then again, he’d never really gotten the chance. It was hard to get to do anything leadership-wise when you had Tommy on your team, just due to the rule of Tommy needing to feel like he’s the perfect Ranger. (And Rocky could understand why Tommy felt that way, considering how he had become a Ranger in the first place, but did he have to be the leader as the White Ranger?)

But the thing was, Rocky was smart. Sure, he liked to goof off, and maybe he wasn’t as strong as some of the others when it came to tech stuff, but he was still _smart_. He took advanced math and science! He was the one chosen to swap places with Mr. Wilton!

He just wasn’t smart in the same way that Billy was, and apparently that was all that mattered. (Or the same way that Justin was, and the fact that he’d been replaced by a child still hadn’t stopped hurting.)

It was weird, being one of the Rangers who had two colors, but it felt like he didn’t fit in with either of them. T.J. had also been both red and blue, but T.J. had been the leader of his team. And while T.J. may have not been the tech while he was blue, he was still the strategist. T.J. didn’t have nearly as much trouble with either of his colors as Rocky did. (Even if T.J. tended to hang out with the reds far more often.)

And Tommy was just… Tommy, so his color choices didn’t really matter (and Rocky did have $20 on Tommy eventually ending up as a blue, because it was Tommy. Even if he hoped Kimberly won because Tommy as a Pink Ranger would be hilarious.)

It was really only Rocky who had trouble fitting in, who didn’t feel like he belonged as a Ranger. Sure, some of the Rangers deliberately went out of their way to ignore the stereotypes associated with their colors, but they still seemed to fit in with the others.

Not like Rocky, who was basically only known as being not-Jason and not-Billy. The comic relief. The one who hadn’t done anything that someone else hadn’t done better. The one who was only known for being the replacement. The one who had been replaced by a kid. A kid that was a genius like Billy was.

Sometimes he wished he’d never agreed to enter that stupid competition. If he had known that it would end up with him being a Power Ranger? He would have…. Done exactly the same thing all over again.

Because, maybe Rocky didn’t really fit with either of the colors he’d been assigned. But he still got to say that he’d helped save the world. That he was a Power Ranger.

When it came down to it, the others would always pick team over color, and he had ended up with the best friends that he could ever ask for. He might not fit with his color, but he fit with them.

And in the end, that was all that mattered.


End file.
